Method and system for communicating high rate data in a satellite-based communications network

ABSTRACT

A satellite-based communications system operating at high data rates includes a plurality of communications satellites each having an uplink and a downlink antenna for receiving and transmitting a plurality of spot beams corresponding to a plurality of coverage areas at a plurality of frequencies. The system further includes a plurality of dedicated communications links between a source location in one of the plurality of coverage areas and a destination location in another one of the plurality of coverage areas wherein the plurality of dedicated communications links are each assigned an exclusive time interval for transmitting and receiving communications signals to and from each of the plurality of satellites. The plurality of satellites each have an uplink and downlink antenna beam switch coupled to the uplink and downlink antennas for selecting a reconfigurable subset of the plurality of spot beams based on the time interval. The plurality of satellites each further have a primary communication payload for receiving and transmitting signals at a primary range of frequencies in each of the plurality of spot beams and a secondary communication payload for receiving and transmitting signals at a secondary range of frequencies in each of the plurality of spot beams upon occurring a drop-out of the primary communication payload. The system further includes a plurality of user terminals having a primary communication antenna for transmitting and receiving signals to and from each of the plurality of satellites at the primary range of frequencies.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a division of application Ser. No. 08/867,672 filed Jun. 2, 1997now U.S. Pat. No. 6,125,261.

This invention is related to co-pending application Ser. No. 08/867,197filed Jun. 2, 1997 entitled “Method And System For Providing WidebandCommunications To Mobile Users In A Satellite-Based Network,” having thesame assignee as the present invention, and which is hereby incorporatedby reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates to methods and systems for communicating highrate data to customers in a satellite-based communications networks.

BACKGROUND ART

A number of applications continue to drive the need for high speed datatransport. Industry specific examples include remote film editing,medical image transport, and financial service data consolidation andbackup. Business communications and training needs further accelerateinformation transfer needs across all sectors. As business, governmentand educational institutions disseminate more information, greaterimportance is attached to data transfer. In this environment, reliable,high speed video and data transport becomes even more critical.

Furthermore, a tremendous growth in Internet traffic has caused a strainon the capacity of telephony networks. Network shortcomings includenetwork outages, insufficient access bandwidth, and insufficientinternode bandwidth. Currently, providers need to make significantinvestments, as well as experience installation delays, to upgradenetwork infrastructure, yet they cannot pass the costs on to the endusers.

Corporate LANs/WANs also generate an insatiable demand for higherbandwidth. The demand for bandwidth goes up as more and more users areconnected. The users, in turn, demand more services and improved networkspeed. Personal computers are being used to process not only text, butgraphics and video as well., all on networks that are increasinglyglobal. Widespread implementation of corporate intranets and extranetsfurther drive the move to increased bandwidth applications. High speednetworking is also driven by the growth of video distribution,client/server technology, decentralized systems, increased processingpower and developments in storage capacity.

Thus, it is important to relieve congestion among the heavily usedcommunications links in high-density areas and to bring such service toisolated rural ares which have not been able to participate fully in thecommunications world. While existing satellite systems offer ubiquitousservice, they do not offer direct connection to the end user at moderateto high data rates. Existing Fixed Satellite Service (FSS) systemsemploy wide channel bandwidths and relatively large beamwidths makingthem more suited to point-to-point trunking service rather than to enduser connectivity. The wide area coverage, limited EquivalentIsotropically Radiated Power (EIRP), and constrained flexibility ofthese systems makes any attempt to serve many small users bothinefficient and costly.

The emerging cellular type satellite services serve a very large numberof potential subscribers but only at very low data rates. The on-boardprocessing and packet-switched nature of their signal structure severelylimits the practical user data rates that can be accommodated within thetechnology limitations of the processor. Thus, there exists a need for asatellite communications system that serves the demand for high datarate business users including the high end individual as well as smallbusiness users that demand direct and affordable connection.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

It is thus a general object of the present invention to provide asatellite-based communications network providing reliable high data ratecommunications service to customers throughout the world.

In carrying out the above objects and other objects, features, andadvantages of the present invention, a satellite-based communicationsnetwork provides wideband data communications service to subscribingcustomers. The system includes a plurality of communications satelliteseach having an uplink and a downlink antenna for receiving andtransmitting a plurality of spot beams corresponding to a plurality ofcoverage areas at a plurality of frequencies. The system furtherincludes a plurality of dedicated communications links between a sourcelocation in one of the plurality of coverage areas and a destinationlocation in another one of the plurality of coverage areas wherein theplurality of dedicated communications links are each assigned anexclusive time interval for transmitting and receiving communicationssignals to and from each of the plurality of satellites. The pluralityof satellites each have an uplink and downlink antenna beam switchcoupled to the uplink and downlink antennas for selecting areconfigurable subset of the plurality of soot beams based on the timeinterval. The plurality of satellites each further have a primarycommunication payload for receiving and transmitting signals at aprimary range of frequencies in each of the plurality of spot beams anda secondary communication payload for receiving and transmitting signalsat a secondary range of frequencies in each of the plurality of spotbeams upon occurring a drop-out of the primary communication payload.The system further includes a plurality of user terminals having aprimary communication antenna for transmitting and receiving signals toand from each of the plurality of satellites at the primary range offrequencies..

The above object and other objects, features and advantages of thepresent invention are readily apparent from the following detaileddescription of the best mode for carrying out the invention when takenin connection with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic representation illustrating a satellitecommunication system of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a communicationssubsystem within the satellites of the present invention; and

FIG. 3 is a schematic illustration of the constellation ofcommunications satellites utilized in the present invention.

BEST MODES FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Referring first to FIG. 1, a satellite-based communications network 10with a typical geometry for practicing the present invention isdiagrammatically illustrated. In general, the network 10 includes aplurality of communications satellites 12 in geosynchronous orbit ormedium earth orbit or low earth orbit, a ground station 14 forcontrolling and maintaining operation of each of the plurality ofsatellites 12, and a plurality of user terminals 16. The user terminals16 may interconnect with a single computer 18, a group of networkedPC/Workstation users 20, a group of linked mini/main frame users 22, amega computer 24, or a service provider 26 that provides service to anynumber of independent systems 28.

The geosynchronous satellites 12 are positioned in orbit locationssupporting Fixed Satellite Service (FSS) coverage for domestic serviceand accommodating a primary range of frequencies and a secondary rangeof frequencies, such as 50/40 GHz V-band as well as 13/11 GHz Ku-bandoperation. The locations of satellites 12 must accommodate emissionsalong with other co-orbiting satellites, and must support service to andfrom high population metropolitan and business areas throughout theworld. The ground terminal elevation angles to satellites 12 must be 30degrees or greater to minimize adverse propagation effects especially inthe presence of rain and other disturbances. The preferred orbitlocations include four satellites over the U.S., two each at 99° W and103° W. To accommodate global growth and provide coverage to westernEurope, central Europe, Middle East, and Africa, the preferred orbitlocations further include eight other satellites, two each at 10° E andone at 63° W, 53° W, 48° E, 63.5° E, 115.4° E, and 120.6° E.

Each of the satellites 12 are high power satellites having 15-20 KWpayload capability, such as an HS 702L High Power Spacecraftmanufactured by Hughes Electronics Corporation, the assignee of thepresent invention. The HS 702L is a three-axis body-stabilizedspacecraft that uses a five panel solar array system, along withoutboard radiator panels attached to the main body to dissipate heatgenerated from the high powered Traveling Wave Tubes (TWTs). A schematicblock diagram illustrating a communications subsystem, or payload, 30within satellites 12 is shown in FIG. 2.

The payload 30 includes a primary communication payload 32, a secondarycommunication payload 34, an inter-hemisphere link 35, and anintersatellite link 36. Primary communication payload 32 supports themajority of the communications signals. Secondary communication payload34 is utilized for thin route satellite traffic and as back-up forweather outages of primary communication payload 32. Primarycommunication payload 32 operates preferably in the 50/40 GHz FSSregion, or any other similar high frequency range, to provide highcapacity service and utilizes 3 GHz of spectrum (47.2 to 50.2 GHz) foruplinks and another 3 GHz of spectrum (38.6 to 41.6 GHz) for downlinks.Data rates from 1.544 Mbps (equivalent to T1) to 155 Mbps (OC3equivalent) can, thus, be supported. Users operating at data rates belowthe T1 level can be accommodated by submultiplexing the signals at theuser terminal 16. Secondary communication payload 34 preferably operatesin the 13/11 Ku-band FSS region with 500 MHz of bandwidth width toprovide ubiquitous thin route and high link availability service andconnection between the northern and southern hemispheres.

Primary communication payload 32 includes an uplink antenna 38 and adownlink antenna 44 for receiving and transmitting spot beams carryingsignals at the primary range of frequencies. Narrow spot beams allow agreater power to be received and transmitted in the area it covers,thereby supporting higher data rates than those of wider beams. A singleantenna can produce many spot beams. Many small feed horns arepositioned so that their signals are reflected in narrow beams by aparabolic dish of the antenna. Different antenna feeds are switched onand off, via uplink antenna beam switch 39 and downlink antenna beamswitch 41, thereby selecting the spot beam to be used in each case. Notonly do satellites with multiple narrow beam antennas give a higher EIRPper beam, but the same frequency and bandwidth can also be reusedseveral times for different portions of the earth. Even further, if thespot beams also have dual polarization capability, the number of beamsis doubled, thereby increasing spectral reuse also by a factor of two.For example, for twenty spot beams each with dual polarization, thespectral reuse if forty times.

In the present invention, a surface, or area, such as CONUS, to receivecommunications services of the present invention, is divided into aplurality of coverage areas 43, as shown in FIG. 3. Uplink and downlinkantennas 38,44, respectively, can support a predetermined number ofcoverage areas 43, e.g., 200. However, a subset of the plurality ofcoverage areas 43 is chosen to be used by uplink and downlink antennas38,44, respectively, to support communications services in predeterminedmetropolitan areas having heavy traffic This configuration is controlledby a routing table 45 stored on the payload 30. Thus, the spot beams 43are semi-fixed in position, until reconfigured at a later time.Reconfiguration of uplink and downlink antenna beam switches 39,41,respectively, is possible by updating routing table 45 as needed. Thisupdated information is transmitted by ground station 14. Thus, usage ofavailable satellite resources, such as weight and power, are utilizedfor only those beams that are selected and active.

Preferably, uplink antenna 38 and downlink antenna 44 each consists ofan east-mounted and a west-mounted multifeed antenna assembly having amultibeam array 40,44 and a reflector 42,48 to provide CONUS and coastalcoverage. The offset parabolic reflectors 42,48 are deployed from theeast and west side of the satellite 12, yet the feed arrays 40,44 arefixed to the nadir face and do not deploy. Each reflector 42,48 ispopulated by a fifty-one horn dual circularly polarized feed array40,44. Each horn of the feed array 40,44 is diplexed for both transmitand receive frequencies. In addition, each horn provides either a singlesense of circular polarization or dual circular polarization.Consequently, there are 400 total input ports to the 200 horns thatcomprise the antenna assemblies 38,44. Alternatively, uplink anddownlink antennas 38,44 may comprise a phased array antenna.

As discussed above, antenna beam switches 39, 41 select twenty spotbeams from the 200 horn array, each with dual circular polarization toprovide forty beams per satellite. Each beam and each polarization makesfull use of the 3 GHz of spectrum with a total of forty times spectrumreuse (120 GHz) in all. The selected forty spot beams 43 are directedtowards major metropolitan population centers and business areasincluded within the ubiquitous area, as shown in FIG. 3. In addition,any twenty beams included in the uplink array of receive beam locationsand any twenty of the array of downlink beam locations can be selectedindependently of each other on orbit to accommodate variations intraffic or satellite relocation at a later date.

Each beam is divided into ten Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA)channels, with each channel nominally 300 MHz wide, including guardbands. Each FDMA channel is divided into 100 Time Division MultipleAccess (TDMA) channels, with each TDMA channel having a nominal burstrate of 150 Mbps. Thus, a total of 100 users may use the same frequencychannel in the same beam. Upon subscribing to the service provided bythe network 10 of the present invention, a dedicated communications linkis assigned to a user at a source location in one of the coverage areas43 and a user at a destination location in another one of the coverageareas 43. This dedicated link is assigned an exclusive time channel inone of the frequency channels for transmitting and receivingcommunications signals.

Satellite payload 30 includes a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)circuit switch 62 operating at a suitable intermediate frequency (IF).Circuit switch 62, driven by routing table 45, provides interlinking ofall beams, services and users and dedicated point-to-point andpoint-to-multipoint services. Circuit switch 62 circuit switches signalsto be transmitted either to the same uplink beam as the source signalwas transmitted from or by another downlink beam based on the timeinterval assigned the source signal according to routing table 45.Circuit switch 62 is gated within the time domain to provide precisewindows of time to different desired outputs. Loopback information isincluded within the transmission to provide necessary synchronization ofuser terminals 16 with the satellites 12. Circuit switch 62 also routescrosslink traffic as well as traffic to and from the hemisphericcoverage beam, discussed below.

As with primary communication payload 32, secondary communicationpayload 34 includes an uplink antenna 50 having a multibeam array 52 anda reflector 54, and a downlink antenna 56 having a correspondingmultibeam array 58 and reflector 60. Secondary communication coverage ispreferably provided by two nadir-mounted dual-gridded reflectorantennas, each illuminated by eight diplexed feeds for transmit andreceive frequencies. Secondary communication antennas 50,56 provide atotal of eight dual polarized, elliptical area (3°×1°) coverage beams57, as shown in FIG. 3, for uplink and downlink services. Thus,secondary communication payload 34 provides an eight-fold reuse of thespectrum for a total useable bandwidth of 4 GHz.

To provide for inter-hemisphere interconnectivity, inter-hemisphere link35 includes a single steerable horn 61, diplexed for transmit andreceive frequencies providing one dual linearly polarized spot beam foruplink and downlink services. Horn 61 transmits a 6°×6°, 13/11 GHz areabeam 63 towards the southern hemisphere, allowing thin route coverage ofsouthern regions such as South America, as shown in FIG. 3. This beammay also provide north-south interconnection coverage to areas such asEurope and Africa.

Intersatellite link 36 is included so that traffic from one satellitecovering a particular region or selected metropolitan areas can belinked to a second satellite covering the same or other areas andregions. Intersatellite link 36 may be an optical (or laser) linkoperating in the 1.6 micron region via two 9 inch laser-telescopeassemblies 71,73. Alternatively, intersatellite link 36 may be a radiofrequency (RF) link operating in the 60 GHz region. Data is frequencyconverted and multiplexed to provide a maximum 3 Gbps data rate forinter-satellite connectivity.

Returning to FIG. 1, user terminals 16 include a primary antenna 64 forcommunicating with each of the satellites 12 in the primary range offrequencies, such as V-band frequencies. Thus, user terminals supportdata rates between 1.544 Mbps (equivalent to T1) and 155 Mbps (OC3equivalent) via V-band antenna 64. Data rates below T1 are accommodatedat user terminals 16 by submultiplexing the data to T1 (or higher) ratesbefore transmission. Each of the user terminals 16 time-share the FDMAchannels, with 100 TDMA channels in each 300 MHz FDMA channel. Sinceeach TDMA channel supports a data rate of 1.544 Mbps, the network 10provides a data throughput rate of 1.544 Gbps (100×1.544 Mbps×10) foreach of the forty effective beams per satellite 12. For each FDMAchannel, the channel data rate is 274.8 Mbps, which includes overheadfor coding, transport protocol, network signaling, and accessmanagement. Uplink operation at each of the user terminals 16 operatesin a burst mode at a data rate determined by the full FDMA channel plan.

Thirty watt high power amplifiers (HPA's) operate at saturation in theuser terminals 16, with the user terminals 16 in each beam operatingtime shared on one of ten unique carrier frequencies. Out of bandemissions are minimized in each user station 16. Each of the forty 3.0GHz bandwidth beams is received and down converted, routed throughcircuit switch 62, upconverted, and amplified by a TWTA associated witha particular downlink beam. The downlink beams each have ten carriers,one for each FDMA channel. Each TWTA uses linearizers and operates withsufficient output backoff to ensure minimum out of band emissions andintermodulation products.

User terminals 16 a that cannot tolerate the expected loss oftransmission due to weather outages further include a secondarycommunication antenna 65 for transmitting and receiving signals at thesecondary range of frequencies. Secondary communication antenna 65 mayor may not be the same as the primary communication antenna 64. Userterminals 16 a subscribing to this type of service include a linkquality monitoring center 69 to monitor the quality of service ofprimary communication payload 32 and routes it to a higher quality link,i.e., secondary communication payload 34, in the presence of adverselink propagation disturbance. The rerouting of traffic to a higheravailability link is accomplished by communicating such conditions toground station 14.

As discussed above, each of the satellites 12 are also in communicationwith a ground station 14. Ground station 14 has two functions. Satellitecontrol center 68 manages the health and status of all the satellites 12and maintains their orbits. If rain attenuation exceeds the link budgetallocation at the primary range of frequencies, e.g., 50/40 GHz, thesatellite 12 shall be commanded by satellite control center 68 toprovide service via the secondary communication payload 34 until theweather front passes, at which time the satellite 12 is restored toprimary services. Secondary communication payload 34 resource is thenfree to backup another metropolitan area, if needed, or to provideubiquitous thin route services over CONUS. To be an effective backup,secondary communication payload 34 must have a sufficient capacity, onthe order of 10% of the primary communication payload 32, in order tobackup the entire service.

Network operations center 70 of ground station 14 provides resourcemanagement, fault management, accounting, billing, customer interfacing,and service. Ground station 14 is preferably placed in low-rain sectionsof friendly countries so as to provide line-of-sight communications witheach of the satellites 12.

The network of the present invention provides communicationscapabilities that will significantly contribute to the National andGlobal Information Infrastructures. It provides high data ratecommunications to customers throughout the United States and most of therest of the world as well. The system provides true broadbandcapability, including high speed access to the Internet in particularand high-technology telecommunications in general. The innovative designof the system insures that this capability can be provided at a muchlower cost than installing fiber, thereby taking advantage of thedistance insensitivity of satellite-based service. It is alsoparticularly attractive at making first and last mile connections, whichis a problem with the present copper and optical fiber cable systems.

While the best modes for carrying out the invention have been describedin detail, those familiar with the art to which this invention relateswill recognize various alternative designs and embodiments forpracticing the invention as defined by the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for providing high frequency datacommunications in a satellite-based communications network, the systemcomprising: a plurality of communications satellites (12) each havinguplink and downlink antennas (38,44) capable of receiving andtransmitting a plurality of signals utilizing spot beams to a pluralityof coverage areas (43) at a predetermined range of frequencies, theplurality of satellites (12) each further having uplink and downlinkantenna beam switches (39,41) coupled to the uplink and downlinkantennas (38,44) respectively for selecting a reconfigurable subset ofthe plurality of coverage areas (43) so as to provide satellitecommunications to a subset of the plurality of coverage areas (43), andthe plurality of satellites (12) each having a primary communicationpayload (32) for receiving and transmitting signals at a primary rangeof frequencies in each of the plurality of coverage areas (43) in thesubset and a secondary communication payload (34) for receiving andtransmitting signals at a secondary range of frequencies in each of theplurality of coverage areas (43) in the subset upon drop-out of theprimary communication payload (32); a plurality of dedicatedcommunications links between a source location in one of the pluralityof coverage areas (43) and a destination location in another one of theplurality of coverage areas (43), the plurality of dedicatedcommunications links each being assigned an exclusive time interval fortransmitting and receiving communications signals to and from each ofthe plurality of satellites (12); and a plurality of user terminals (16)disposed in the plurality of source locations and destination locationsfor transmit-ting and receiving signals to and from each other via theplurality of communications satellites (12) utilizing one of theplurality of dedicated communications links, and each of the pluralityof user terminals (16) having a primary communication antenna (64) fortransmitting and receiving signals to each of the plurality ofsatellites (12) at the primary range of frequencies.
 2. The system asrecited in claim 1 wherein each of the plurality of satellites furthercomprise a switch for circuit switching the signals received at one ofthe uplink antennas to a corresponding one of the downlink antennasbased on the time interval.
 3. The system as recited in claim 2 whereinthe switch is a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) switch.
 4. Thesystem as recited in claim 3 wherein each of the user terminals aresynchronized to the TDMA switch via synchronization signals transmittedby each of the plurality of satellites.
 5. The system as recited inclaim 2 wherein each of the plurality of satellites include a routingtable for storing time interval data identifying each of the pluralityof dedicated communications links for driving the uplink and downlinkantenna beam switches and the circuit switch.
 6. The system as recitedin claim 5 further comprising a ground station for transmitting andreceiving signals to and from each of the plurality of communicationssatellites for monitoring and controlling each of the plurality ofsatellites.
 7. The system as recited in claim 6 wherein the groundstation transmits signals to each of the plurality of satellites forupdating the routing table for use in reconfiguring the subset of theplurality of coverage areas and for use in driving the circuit switch.8. The system as recited in claim 7 wherein at least one of the userterminals further comprise a secondary communication antenna fortransmitting and receiving signals to and from each of the plurality ofsatellites at the secondary range of frequencies.
 9. The system asrecited in claim 8 wherein the at least one of the user terminalsfurther comprising a link monitoring system for monitoring performanceof the primary communication payload and generating a link performancesignal upon occurring a drop-out in the primary communication payload.10. The system as recited in claim 9 wherein the ground station is inelectrical communication with the at least one of the user terminals andtransmits a link signal to one of the plurality of satellitesinstructing the one of the plurality of satellites to transmitcommunications signals to the at least one of the user terminals at thesecondary range of frequencies based on the performance signal generatedby the at least one of the user terminals.
 11. The system as recited inclaim 10 wherein each of the plurality of satellites monitorsperformance of the primary communication and automatically transmitssignals at the second range of frequencies upon occurring a drop-out inthe primary communication payload.
 12. The system as recited in claim 1wherein each of the plurality of spot beams carry two orthogonallypolarized signals.
 13. The system as recited in claim 1 wherein theplurality of satellites are positioned in a geosynchronous orbit. 14.The system as recited in claim 1 wherein the plurality of satellites arepositioned in one of a medium earth orbit and a low earth orbit.
 15. Thesystem as recited in claim 1 wherein the uplink and downlink antennasare multi beam array antennas.
 16. The system as recited in claim 1wherein the uplink and downlink antennas are phased array antennas. 17.The system as recited in claim 1 wherein the primary range offrequencies is the V-band of frequencies.
 18. The system as recited inclaim 17 wherein the secondary range of frequencies is the Ku-band offrequencies.
 19. The system as recited in claim 1 wherein each of theplurality of satellites (12) further comprises an intersatellite link(36) for communicating with each of the other plurality of satellites(12) and wherein the intersatellite link (36) is an optical link. 20.The system as recited in claim 1 wherein each of the plurality ofsatellites (12) further comprises an intersatellite link (36) forcommunicating with each of the other plurality of satellites (12) andwherein the intersatellite link (36) is a radio frequency link.
 21. Thesatellite-based global communications network system of claim 1, whereinat least one of said plurality of dedicated communications linksincludes an interhemisphere link for providing interhemisphericinterconnection coverage.
 22. The system of claim 21 wherein theinterhemisphere link includes a single steerable horn which is diplexedfor transmit and receive frequencies and providing one dual linearlypolarized spot beam for uplink and downlink services.
 23. The system ofclaim 22 wherein said horn transmits a 6°×6°, 13/11 GHz area beamtowards the southern hemisphere, allowing thin route coverage ofsouthern regions of the hemisphere.
 24. The system of claim 21 furthercomprising a circuit switch for routing traffic to and from saidinterhemisphere link.
 25. In a satellite-based communications networkincluding a plurality of communications satellites (12) each havinguplink and downlink antennas (38,44) capable of receiving andtransmitting a plurality of signals utilizing spot beams to a pluralityof coverage areas (43), the plurality of satellites (12) each furtherhaving uplink and downlink antenna beam switches (39,41) coupled to theuplink and downlink antennas (38,44) respectively for selecting areconfigurable subset of the plurality of coverage areas (43) so as toprovide satellite communications to a subset of the plurality ofcoverage areas (43), the network further including a plurality ofdedicated communications links between a source location in one of theplurality of coverage areas (43) and a destination location in anotherone of the plurality of coverage areas (43) and a plurality of userterminals (16) for transmitting and receiving signals to and from eachof the plurality of satellites (12) utilizing one of the plurality ofdedicated communications links, a method for providing high frequencydata communications, the method comprising: assigning an exclusive timeinterval to each of the plurality of dedicated communications linksthrough which each of the plurality of user terminals (16) transmit andreceive communications signals to and from each of the plurality ofsatellites (12); and transmitting and receiving the signals to and fromeach of the plurality of user terminals (16) via the plurality ofcommunications satellites (12) utilizing one of the plurality ofdedicated communications links at a primary range of frequencies. 26.The method as recited in claim 25 further comprising transmitting andreceiving the signals to and from each of the user terminals at asecondary range of frequencies upon occurring a drop-out at the primaryrange of frequencies.
 27. The method as recited in claim 26 furthercomprising circuit switching the signals received at the uplink antennasto a corresponding one of the downlink antennas based on the timeinterval.
 28. The method as recited in claim 27 further comprisingsynchronizing each of the plurality of user terminals with each of theplurality of satellites.
 29. The method as recited in claim 25 furthercomprising storing a routing table at each of the plurality ofsatellites for storing time interval data identifying each of theplurality of dedicated communications links for driving the uplink anddownlink antenna beam switches.
 30. The method as recited in claim 25wherein the satellite-based communications network further includes aground station for transmitting and receiving signals to and from eachof the plurality of satellites and wherein the method further comprisingtransmitting reconfiguration signals to at least one of the plurality ofsatellites for updating the routing table for use in reconfiguring thesubset of the plurality of coverage areas.